They were azi, cloned humans who had been born from tanks and trained on tape. From Cyteen they were sent to plant a colony on a strange world and secure it for their masters. Then they were abandoned.

On the world they called Gehenna, their culture began to mutate in strange and unpredictable ways. Then there were the enormous saurians indigenous to the planet, creatures they called calibans. These creatures seemed to exhibit some goal-directed behavior, but in strange and puzzling ways.

Could the descendants of the original azi colonists unravel the riddle of the calibans? Could they survive long enough to do so?

If you enjoy 40,000 in Gehenna, you may also enjoy Cyteen, the novel that deals with how the colonization of Gehenna affected the culture and society of its mother world, Cyteen, where human beings are the principal product.